5 January 2006 Edition

Fifth Column

The SDLP — going for a gong

The SDLP are in a right old state over their top spin doctor accepting the
Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List from the British
Queen and Prince Charles, Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment.

Tugging his forelock to accept the royal bauble on bended knee from the
anti-democratic, anti-republican, anti-Catholic, British imperial dynasty is
PR guru Tom Kelly, the SDLP's representative on the Policing Board.

But rather than be embarrassed by uncle Tom's sell out, SDLP chiefs are
unashamedly saying that it's okay for an Irish nationalist political
activist and high-ranking SDLP member to accept the OBE and all the colonial
baggage that goes with it.

SDLP deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell beamed: "I am delighted for Tom and
wish him well. His work on the Policing Board has been superb. He deserves
any award that he receives in recognition for his work in the community.
Whether he chooses, as a party member, to accept his award is his decision,
but I accept it. If Tom is comfortable with it, so am I."

Not for nothing was the SDLP derided in these pages in days gone by as the
Stoop Down Low Party.

Steady Eddie Espie on the OBE

Where does SDLP Vice Chair Eddie Espie stand on Tom Kelly taking the Order
of the British Empire on behalf of the SDLP?

When Denis Donaldson was exposed as an RUC/PSNI Special Branch police spy in
Sinn Féin, Eddie bizarrely called on Gerry Adams to stand down, as if Adams
was responsible for the RUC/PSNI recruiting Donaldson. Somehow, the SDLP
head curiously omitted to call for the resignation of British Security
Ministers, PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde or Donaldson's PSNI Special Branch
handlers.

Even Eddie Espie must accept that Sinn Féin doesn't endorse agents of the
British crown within its ranks; can the same be said of the SDLP?

The man from the Daily Mail

Nearly as bizarre as unsteady Eddie's thinking is the media 'outing' of
alleged British spies within republican ranks, including the weekend
nonsense peddled by Ireland on Sunday.

Question 1: Why would the RUC/PSNI/MI5 tell journalists the names of key
intelligence assets cultivated over decades and at great expense to blast
across their front pages?

Question 2: Does anyone really believe what is written by the Sunday
stablemate in Ireland of the Daily Mail?

Spies like him

How ironic were the revelations in the traditional New Year publication of
state papers from 1975 that Irish Army Intelligence was spying on Conor
Cruise O'Brien.

The 26-County Labour Party, anti-republican Communications Minister was the
bane of progressives thought in Ireland in the 1970s, ruthlessly enforcing
political censorship of RTÉ and even keeping his own J Edgar Hoover-type
files by feverishly clipping letters out of the Irish Press and other
newspapers that were critical of the then Fine Gael/Labour coalition.

The state documents, released under the 30-year rule, also show that
government files were kept on political parties (republicans and Pat
Rabbitte's old comrades), trade unions, women's organisations, journalists
and politicians, including the left-wing former Health Minister, Dr Noel
Browne, then an independent member of the Seanad for TCD.

The name of a future Supreme Court judge and president of the Law
Commission, Catherine McGuinness, pops up in a file on her husband,
journalist and broadcaster, the late Proinsias Mac Aonghusa.

In a file headed "Women's Liberation Movement", while the conflict raged in
the Six Counties, military intelligence officers spent their time snipping
letters from the Irish Times, including one from Fine Gael future Education
Minister Gemma Hussey and future Junior Minister for Women's Affairs Nuala
Fennell, with their names underlined.

One wonders what else is in these files from the 1970s that are now in the
custody of Justice Minister Michael McDowell... and what use will the PDs'
Witch-Finder General put them to in the run-up to the next general election
'in defence of the security of the state'?

Spy kids

• Franco

The defence of the security of the state in 1975 depended on detailed files
being kept on all classes of radical thought -- including schoolkids in
County Tipperary.

Eight pupils in the Fifth Year Spanish class at Mount St Joseph College,
Roscrea, came under the eagle eye of the spooks in Military Intelligence
when they wrote to the Irish Times in a humanitarian protest over five
executions carried out in the last days of Franco's fascist regime in Spain.
For this, they earned a place in the spy files of Irish Army Intelligence
and a place on the list of subversives who could pose a threat to the
security of the state.

Just what was Military Intelligence up to? Are they still clipping letters
to the newspapers from schoolkids?

Just before Christmas, Williams ran a dramatic full-page story on Page 4,
under the strapline, "Exclusive — Top Cops' Warning About Provos", a
headline blazing "Republican Plot to Silence McDowell". There was "a serious
threat" to Justice Minister McDowell's safety, according to the colourful
scribe, from the PSNI Special Branch, so it must be true. "Minister gets
beefed-up security after serious threats," a huge pull-quote shrilled.

And to prove it, the Sunday World had evidence to show how Marshal McDowell
braves danger daily. The Justice Minister went for a walk in Dublin's
Phoenix Park, scene of a previous vicious republican terrorist double murder
of government officials, remember, in... er, 1882, when The Invincibles
stabbed to death with surgical knives Burke and Cavendish, the second and
third highest ranking members of the British Government in Ireland. Now,
just 123 years later, McDowell was being stalked by a very shady character
as he walked in the footsteps of Burke and Cavendish. Was he, too, a dead
man walking?

Williams had us on the edge of our seats as he revealed:

"Members of the Minister's protection team were forced to move when they
spotted 'an Arab-looking man' following him."

Was history about to repeat itself? Were the knives out for Big Mac? Was the
man from Ballsbridge being hunted down by Al-Qaeda, or Islamic Jihad, or the
Casablanca Brigade of the IRA?

"The foreign national recognised the Minister," Williams gasps, but who
wouldn't — and he is the Immigration Minister. But this "Arab-looking"
chappie "was following him on foot when two bodyguards stepped in and
stopped him".

And? And? And... nothing.

The only thing dead is the story. No wrestling to the ground of a ruthless,
wild-eyed, knife-wielding, Muslim fundamentalist; no dragging off of a
fanatical suicide stroller in handcuffs to be grilled by the Special Branch
or the CIA. No, nothing, really. Zilch. Zip. Non-event after all.

It was just a walk in the park.

Paul Williams is in a (Sunday) world of his own.

An Phoblacht Magazine

AN PHOBLACHT MAGAZINE:

The first edition of this new magazine will feature a 10 page special on the life and legacy of our leader Martin McGuinness to mark the first anniversary of his untimely passing.

It will include a personal reminiscence by Gerry Adams and contributions from the McGuinness family.

There will also be an exclusive interview with our new Uachtarán Mary Lou McDonald.